Help! I am Drowning in Work Stress!
Results of a survey conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA) between January 31 and February 8, 2011, showed that 36 percent of workers reported experiencing work stress regularly. 49 percent indicated that low salary has a significant impact on their work stress. Other factors that contribute to work stress include lack of opportunities for growth and advancement (43 percent), heavy workload (43 percent), unrealistic job expectations (40 percent) and long hours (39 percent). But despite the work stress they are experiencing, only 32 percent indicated that they intend to seek employment elsewhere within the next year. For most workers, despite drowning in work stress, clinging on to job security is still a more viable option to ending an employment and looking for work with lesser stress.
So when one is drowning in work stress, how do you save yourself short of resigning from work?
Halt. Take a little time to do the following.
Macro and micro examination. Take a look at the big picture and then examine the small details.
The macro examination may include the different roles that you play and their corresponding contribution to work stress. Is your unhappy marriage getting in the way of getting work done in the office? Is your work in the office getting in the way of your being able to attend momentous events of your family? Will the company fail if you fail in your work? Do the members of your department depend on your work performance?
The micro examination may include a close examination of your work diary for instance. Does your work diary contain events and activities worth 15 hours per day? How often are the weekends unmarked? When was the last time you had dinner with your family without thinking about work? How much do you hate your alarm clock?
It is important that you take a macro and micro examination in order to proceed to the next step.
Bold, Underline, And Italicize. When writing reports at work, we make sure that important words are not drowned amongst the thousands of other words by clicking the bold, underline or italicize button. Likewise, after taking a micro and macro examination of your roles and their contribution to work stress, you need to highlight what is important. As Maureen Killoran said, “Stress is not what happens to us. It’s our response TO what happens. And RESPONSE is something we can choose.”
Usually, we find ourselves swamped with work that further aggravates work stress. Having a clear idea of what is important to you in order of rank, you will be able to respond to what is important instead of making the mistake of responding to stress stimulus simultaneously thereby spreading yourself too thin. Another advantage of knowing your priorities is that you will be able to cancel, delay or delegate those that are least important.
The game plan. You need a game plan if you are to survive work stress. How do you build an effective game plan? Take into consideration your macro and micro examination and your priorities that you established under bold, underline and italicize and make concrete action plans.
Example: Your macro examination shows that your constant tardiness (this is the factor that causes you work stress) results in antagonizing your colleagues in the office, shortens your time to get your work done, and generally starts the day wrong; your micro examination shows that you constantly battle the daily traffic in getting to and from the office; you establish that having a home away from the city is important for your savings.
Your game plan may be getting to work earlier, thereby avoiding the morning traffic and having a leisurely breakfast near the office (which would be a relaxed way to start the day) and having dinner near the office while waiting for the late afternoon traffic to die down.
By taking the time to engage in macro and micro examination of the factors contributing to work stress, establishing your priorities and making a game plan, you are taking positive action towards lowering your work stress. You will not only be able to save yourself from drowning in work stress, you are also saving your work and your sanity.
Thanks for reading this coffee break tidbit on work 
Office Blabber - tidbits on the office, work, career and employment